Tea at Trianon: Athena Parthenos

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, August 20, 2025

Athena Parthenos

From The Collector:

The statue of Athena Parthenos was a large-scale ivory and gold statue created in the 5th century BCE and dedicated to the goddess in the Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis. The larger-than-life devotional image of one of ancient Greece’s most important goddesses was considered a wonder in ancient times. What do we know about the statue, when it was built, what it looked like, and what happened to it?
Athena was the Greek goddess of wisdom, war, and handicrafts, and one of the most popular deities worshipped in ancient Greece. She was considered the patron goddess of numerous Greek cities, including Athens. Zeus impregnated Metis, the goddess of wisdom, but due to a prophecy, became concerned that a son born from Metis would be more powerful than he. Therefore, he tricked the pregnant Metis into transforming into a fly and swallowed her. But Athena continued to grow inside of Zeus, eventually giving him such a terrible headache that he had to ask Hephaestus to break his head open. Athena emerged fully grown and fully dressed in spectacular armor made for her by Metis. She became one of the Olympian gods.

Athena was a complex goddess with many aspects, recognized by various epithets. Athena Parthenos was Athena the Virgin, recognizing that Athena was one of the female Greek gods, alongside Artemis and Hestia, who chose to remain a virgin rather than submit to a man. The title also recognized her role as an enforcer of sexual modesty and other social norms that governed society. (Read more.)